When someone you love experiences a loss, you may feel at a loss. What should you do? What should you say? How do you approach the situation? It’s so tricky, and you don’t want to be the one to say or do the wrong thing. In all honesty, the best approach is just to pick up the phone, send the gift, or show up at the service. Because, really, there’s no perfect way to support a grieving family. To get you started, here are a few simple and easy gift ideas for families coping with loss:
A Home Cooked Meal
This is the tried and true, traditional gift for anyone suffering from grief. A home-cooked meal is good for both the giver and the receiver. It helps you move through the process of offering support as you mix ingredients and prepare food. And it signals to the family you love that you’re there for them in one of the most powerful ways you can be. Food is nourishing, healing, and helpful for everyone involved.
Consider: casseroles, pasta dishes, soups, and pot pies.
Sympathy Baskets
A sympathy basket is kind of an extension of the home-cooked meal. You can really turn sympathy baskets into a collection of anything for anyone. This makes them ideal for a family coping with loss because you can add something for each member of the family. You can also include items that they can all enjoy together. The end result will be both a comfort and a distraction from the enduring pain of losing a loved one. Sometimes people need a break from seemingly endless sadness.
Consider: candles, bath bombs, puzzles, board games, popcorn and snacks, DVDs, magazines, soft socks, cozy blankets, stuffed animals.
Memory Boxes
Like a sympathy basket, a memory box is a personal collection of memories of the departed. This gift idea is especially profound if you were close to the person who passed. If you have photographs, ticket stubs to events, clothing, or other trinkets and items the person loved, you can add them to the box. If you don’t want to part with these items, you can duplicate them in some way. The point is to help the family remember the one they’ve lost in beautiful ways.
Consider: decorate the memory box with small photos or symbols that meant something to the departed. Put the person’s name and dates on the outside of the box.
A Playlist
Music is one of the strongest methods to evoke vivid memories. It can be a lyric or just the tune of a song. If you were close to the person who passed and you want to offer comfort to their family, make a playlist. It should include songs the departed loved, songs that make you think of them, and songs you all enjoyed together. You can use Spotify or Apple Music, or you can even burn a CD, if the family has a CD player.
Consider: only choose this gift if the family loves music as well and will understand how important these songs are. Also, choose the media based on what the family will be able to use.
Housecleaning Services
The last thing most people want to do when they’re grieving is clean the house. More often, laundry and dishes pile up, dust builds, and clutter abounds. The problem is that it’s hard to heal and move through grief productively in a messy house. You can help with this by hiring a housecleaning service to come into the home once a week for the next few weeks. You’ll take the burden off the family, and you’ll give them space, literally, to make progress.
Consider: be sure to let the service know that they’re cleaning for a grieving family, so they can be sure to be sensitive while in the home.
Meal Delivery Services
Like with cleaning the house, few people think to cook and nourish themselves when they’re grieving. In a family, this means kids can end up snacking on junk food and parents may just go without. That’s no way to heal, and it can only lead to depression, anxiety, and increased stress. Once the casseroles and pasta dishes from friends and family have cleared out, you can pay for the family to have meal delivery services. This will help them stay nourished and fed with fewer dishes to deal with.
Consider: choose a meal delivery service with a combination of healthy ingredients and comfort foods.
A Sympathy Plant
Finally, when the family is ready, you can bring over a sympathy plant to be placed strategically in the yard. This could be a tree, a bushy flowering plant, or even a vine. This can represent the enduring and cyclical nature of life. It’s a good idea to discuss what kind of plant might be best with the family, and then create a ritual around the planting, so you can all grieve and celebrate your loved one’s life together.
Consider: choose a hardy plant that is suitable for the family’s zone, so it is sure to live a long, healthy life.
In the end, there are many simple, affordable, loving gifts to offer a family that’s coping with loss. The key is to pick the right gift and bring or send it at the right time. Sit with the family, express your love and sympathy, and don’t be afraid to ask them what they need. These conversations will help you understand what kind of gift will truly reflect not just your compassion but also a deep memory of the departed that the family can appreciate.
